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 You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall we're studying the book of Ephesians, learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching. As we read our scripture this morning, I'll remind you that if you use an electronic device to do that, it's the  English Standard version that you're looking for.  There are Bibles in the chair racks in front of you if  that is a helpful thing for you. We're reading from Ephesians chapter six,  starting in verse number 10.  Finally,  be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,  but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,  against the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavenly places.  Therefore,  take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day  and having done  all  to stand firm.  Stand therefore,  having fastened on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  in all circumstances take up the shield of faith  with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one  and take the helmet of salvation  and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God  praying at all times  in the spirit  with all prayer  and supplication.  This is the word of the Lord. Well it's clear from the passage we just read together that we're in a battle.  And as we  seek to understand what God's word has for us this morning, as we uh hear it and think about it and meditate on it, let's just begin  with prayer  as we get  into this together.  Father, we want to hear  and understand your word.  So as we  embark on this journey into your word together,  may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts  be pleasing in your sight.  You are our rock and our Redeemer.  Amen. Well, I know about you, but every two years  we get wrapped up in watching the Olympics, right?  Four years,  depending on if you just watched the Winter Olympics. But  last night I turned on my TV for the first time this year and  was watching,  you know, the figure skating. And  I thought, you know, I've been watching the Olympics for a long time. I've seen everything. But I saw something I'd never seen before.  And that was,  I wish I had written down his name, but someone doing a backflip  on the ice,  which I thought was physically impossible and probably not recommended.  But it was incredible. Somehow he still didn't get first place for the team event points. I'm not sure how all that works. But  as I was sitting there reflecting on it, obviously thinking about this message that  I'm bringing this morning,  I was reminded of the fact that while,  yes, the Olympics takes lots of training, lots of practice, I can't imagine how many hours that person had to put into it to successfully land that backflip on the ice,  you also need  the right equipment. Right, you're not gonna take your ice skates and go down alpine skiing. You're not gonna take  the air rifle from the biathlon and use that to play curling.  Right, like what you need for the task at hand to achieve victory, to win the gold medal, yes, you need training, but you also need the right equipment. So as we think about this battle that we are in, this spiritual battle we are in, we are reminded of the armor of God, the equipment that we need to win the battle. But... oh If we also pay attention, we recognize that in this  spiritual battle,  we're called to stand firm,  but it's to stand firm in what Christ has already won.  And so  that's the point of what we're looking at today, to stand firm  in what Christ has already won.  And so as we unpack this passage together, we're gonna see that there are four keys  to standing firm, four things from this passage that Paul wants his readers, wants us to know  about what it takes to stand firm  in what Christ has already won.  So as we  are turning our focus towards these verses, just kind of a  brief reminder of where we're at, not just in the book of Ephesians, but where  the. the Ephesian believers were at. They were in  Ephesus.  Paul was writing this letter to them. It was to them and the other surrounding churches of Asia Minor. And in this world, it was pagan. It was religiously pluralistic.  In the metropolitan areas of the Roman Empire, there were  often these groups or guilds that you wanted to be on the inside of that you could trade within.  And to be a part of these guilds, there were certain expectations that  you would worship the Roman gods, that you would participate in temple worship and practices, which  included temple prostitution.  The guilds in many of these towns would shun anyone who would not participate. So there's this  obvious temptation for believers as they're understanding who Jesus is and submitting to his lordship, that they cannot any longer participate in these things that maybe used to be a part of their past,  and yet Paul wants them to remember  who the real enemy is.  The enemy is not the people that they are neighbors with, that they are business partners with, but the enemy is of a spiritual nature.  know, Ephesus was the epicenter of that region. You the temple of Artemis was one of the ancient  seven wonders of the world. And last time  Paul was there, it was a real riot,  like really a riot. And you know, they're shouting and chanting, great is Artemis  of the Ephesians.  And so with this context in mind, as Paul is bringing this letter to a close, he says, finally, with all that I've said so far, let's remember.  what we're to be about.  And so verses 10 and 11, the first key we see  that we need to draw strength  from the right source.  The first key to standing firm on what Christ has already won is to draw strength  from the right source. He says,  finally,  be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might,  put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes  of the devil.  So  he says, finally,  after all I've said,  don't forget this,  in  everything,  be strong in the Lord.  The Lord is the source  for our strength in each and every circumstance.  Now this could  easily refer to how we should approach everything, right? We should always be strong in the Lord, but.  specifically is referring to the source of our strength  in this spiritual battle that we find ourselves in.  And it's not just that we're strengthened  by  the Lord,  but strengthened  in the Lord.  The Lord  is not like my coffee.   Sometimes I have it in the morning, it gives me energy,  keeps my headaches away, probably because I drink too much coffee, but  I'm renewed and strengthened by my coffee. I'm thankful for it. Some days maybe I have more, some days maybe I have less, depending on the day. The Lord is not like my coffee. We're not  strengthened by him. He's not just this source that we kind of tap into from time to time. We are  strong  in the Lord. We are united  with Christ in his death and resurrection. So as we find ourselves in union with him, we find that his power is at work within us.  And so in this  union with Christ, we are to what?  Put on  the whole armor of God. Right, we're getting dressed for battle.  This  analogy of putting on the things we need to be prepared. but it's a  singular  armor of God. There's different elements, but we don't get to pick and choose. We don't get to  take some, but not others.  It's kind of like the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruits of the Spirit, plural, it's fruit, singular, meaning  the one thing the Spirit does is give us love, joy, peace, kindness, and so on. And so the whole armor of God  is what it is. It's the whole  armor.  Take it,  put it on.  And this analogy that Paul is bringing us to  is rooted in a lot of verses from Isaiah.  It's not from one necessarily,  one passage necessarily, but from a variety of different verses throughout Isaiah, we see some of these  illustrations.  In Isaiah 11, chapter five,  it describes that the Messiah  is wearing righteousness and faithfulness as a belt.  Isaiah 52, seven refers to the beautiful feet of those who bring the good news.  Isaiah 59, 17 says this, he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. Do you hear the similarities there? Now watch this, this is incredible in my mind. The armor we are putting on belongs to the Lord.  And what Isaiah says, it is the Lord's armor that he is wearing. So in our union with Christ, as we are strengthened  in the Lord, we put on the armor of God.  What once was only the Lord's, now we get to share in as believers who are united with him. I think that is so cool, that because we are united with him, what once was just belonging to the Lord, now we get to participate in. And Paul says that all this, to put on the armor, all of it, to do this, to be able to stand. And he says this three times in this passage, to stand, to stand firm, and we'll come back to that idea in a minute.  And it's to stand  against the schemes  of the devil.  And this is where he begins to introduce this idea  that our enemy  is not what we can see. It's not who we can see,  but it's of a spiritual nature.  So what are these schemes of the devil?  Well, let's actually read the next couple of verses,  and we'll come back to this question, because this brings us to the second  key. to stand firm in Christ. If we're to stand firm on what Christ has already won, we must draw strength from the right source, and second, we must identify the right enemy. Identify the right enemy. Verse 12, Paul says this, for we do not wrestle  against flesh and blood,  but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,  against the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavenly places.  So  our  primary struggle is not against flesh and blood.  It's not against fellow image bearers of God, but against the unseen world of spiritual forces.  He says, we do not wrestle, or maybe your translation says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.  It's not  the Greek word you would expect to find in this military analogy.  It's actually this athletic wrestling term,  a picture of a uh close  struggle  and wrestling together that  this is not something far off, right? The spiritual forces, they're in another realm.  We don't have to deal with that. They just gotta stick to themselves. No, we are intimately involved in this struggle with them.  They want to bring it close to us.  And our enemy wants nothing more  than for us to be fighting people  and things that are not the real enemy. So we've to ask ourselves, how often do we view the others  as the problem,  as the evil or the wickedness that we're trying to fight against?  You whether it's the boss who doesn't recognize you, it's the neighbor who won't leave you alone, it's the unforgiving  spouse, the rebellious  children, it's the  person who cuts you off in traffic, right? We have a tendency to look at what we see and see that as  the problem,  to see that as the enemy.  But Paul is clear that it is not, that that is not our true struggle.  So back to this question of the devil's schemes.  Well, what are they? We wanna stand up against them, we wanna know what they are.  So let's remind ourselves. The devil, he is the evil one. He is the ruler of the powers of the air,  whose influence remains powerful over those who have not yet been made alive in Christ.  He remains powerful over those who have given in  a foothold to the enemy.  He is a clever adversary who was set against the progress of the gospel and the kingdom of God and who seeks every opportunity to cause believers to sin  or to lose faith and despair.  Our enemy, the evil one, wants the world to be filled with  anger,  rage, malice, slander, violence, deceit, sexual immorality, gossip, lies, and every other kind of actions and thoughts that people would allow to infiltrate their life  and lead them towards  destruction. So these are the schemes  of the devil.  But then he talks about all these spiritual forces.  And so we ask ourselves,  who are they?  What are they? What are these rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual force of evil in the heavenly places?  If it's not flesh and blood, if it's not fellow image bearers, then  who is Paul talking about? The short answer is,  we don't exactly know.  We know.  that Satan is not omnipresent or all-powerful like God is.  Satan is not an equal adversary,  like the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, and they kind of just go back and forth, and sometimes the devil has the upper hand and sometimes God has the upper, no. This is not the picture of reality. He's not an equal adversary. But.  He does have his  army of minions, as I like to call them,  spiritual forces of evil that he has command over.  And what we do know  is that these spiritual forces exist  and that they act.  We need to take their existence and their threat  seriously.  And while we don't know  who exactly these powers and forces  are,  this we know for sure.  All these cosmic powers have been subjected to Christ.  Ephesians 1, a  continuation of the passage we heard during our uh worship this morning,  he says that the power  that the Father worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. Verse 22 of chapter one, and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. All powers, dominions, authorities, even in the heavenly places have been subjected to Christ. So although these  spiritual forces are powerful  and in the heavenly realms,  we should not be frightened by them.  According to what Paul has already mentioned to us in Ephesians,  we have been given every spiritual gift in Christ in the heavenly places.  We are made alive  and we are seated with him in the heavenly places, which is the very domain where  these forces operate.  So they may rule the realm of darkness and evil, but believers have been transferred out of this realm  and into the kingdom of light. Now, the spiritual forces waging war around us is not usually something we think about on a daily basis or are aware of, especially in Western culture in 2026.  But there've been a few times,  and maybe you can relate to this,  where the veil  between our earthly existence and the spiritual realm  is awfully thin.  And through the power of the Holy Spirit, you get a sense  of the spiritual forces at work.  you Very briefly, I'll just  share a little bit of  a time where to me,  the  spiritual forces at work felt  palpable. This is a few years back on our  Serve and Learn trip to Barcelona, Spain.  And it was a Tuesday night. uh One of our team members was giving their testimony at night,  and the kids who were attending the camp,  many of whom are not believers,  just weren't being respectful. They weren't listening. This person was pouring out their heart and soul about the struggles that their life had brought em and  they were  laughing, giggling, talking to each other. They kept trying to clap the person off the stage to be done so they could go have fun.  And I remember getting up to the camp, like where we stay at the top of the hill,  and our team was just,  we were fuming. We were  upset on behalf of our team member.  We  just wanted to fight the kids. We wanted to go up and tell them to go to bed and tell them how they've been disrespectful, how they were rude, what they did was wrong.  And in that moment, I think we could all sense  that that was causing,  as a team, our disunity.  That we were  splintering, we were  focusing  not on the right enemy.  We thought for a moment we were being led to believe that these kids were being disrespectful were the enemy.  But in that moment, we recognized, no.  And  I can just remember this feeling of darkness, not just because it was night, but it just felt like there were forces at work. And so we stopped, we prayed  in  unity in Christ. We prayed against the spiritual forces. And while  these forces probably still continue to fight,  and I still feel at times every time I go back to Spain,  we know  who the real enemy is.  And it is not.  the fellow image bearers that we're trying to reach with the gospel, but it is these spiritual forces at work. They're at work, but we're able to stand firm because Christ has already won our victory. So the third key, as we keep reading in this passage, is to equip the right armor. Equip the right armor. Verse 13 and following. He outlines  the armor of God.  Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.  And having done all,  to stand firm.  Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,  having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts  of the evil one.  and take the helmet of salvation  and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.  Therefore,  he says,  because we know who the real fight is against,  take  up,  equip yourselves.  Like Isildur,  son of Elendil, when his father died on the battlefield, took up the broken shard of his father's sword, Narsil, to cut the wind ring  off the hand of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings.  We are  to take up  the armor of God.  So that we can withstand in the evil day.  The evil day is not just the day of future judgment, it is a description  of the age that exists between  when Jesus ascended and when he comes again in glory. It is a day that we are currently in. Jesus spoke to this, that  the days are evil and we're currently in them.  When we look around the world, when we look around our country, when we look in our neighborhood, would we say anything different? Would we not just recognize the pain and suffering and evil that exists? This verse 13 here finds a pretty close parallel in the book of Romans chapter 13, verse 12, where Paul says this, the night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on, the armor of light.  And he says, we're able to stand because we have done all. Having done all to stand, Paul reminds us  that it takes our faithful participation in this.  Just like throughout the letter of Ephesians, Christ has done it, yes, but it also requires our faithful participation in it.  So what are we to do? We have the armor, but what are our marching orders?  It's to stand firm. right, we're coming back to this thing I mentioned earlier. Paul mentions this three times, stand firm. Our position is to hold,  to defend,  to stand.  Our position in the battle is not the aggressor.  It's not  either to run and hide,  but it's to stand firm and hold fast to the ground that Christ has already won.  And if we wanna be able to stand firm,  we must  be sure that we are equipping  the right armor.  Right? Think back to the Olympics, right? You're not gonna win anything if you don't have the right equipment, if you're not  taking care of what you're putting on and how. And so  we wanna pay attention to  the armor of God.  Now, we don't know if there's a specific reason  that Paul chose  the pairings he did, right? Like, for example, why  is it the belt of truth and shield of faith and not the  belt of faith and shield of truth? We don't really know. uh We don't want to draw too much connection. We don't want to push the analogy too far and get into nitty gritty details of  guessing.  But at the same time,  I think there's some wisdom that can be gleaned when we  look at  the world that Paul was in,  what it meant to have armor, what does it look like, what were the functions of it, and maybe what are some of those connections. So we're gonna look at some of these connections that Paul is making,  but maybe without going  too far.  So the belt of truth.  It's not the kind of belts that we wear today. It's not  a belt to keep up your pants. It's  not the belt of truth that many parents used like a rod of wisdom and maybe they're not too distant past. No,  this belt was a uh wide  apron-like thing that went around the waist of a soldier. Picture instead those  wraps or straps that movers wear when they're lifting heavy things, right?  support your back,  it's to uh prepare you to not buckle under pressure. Right? It was to help them keep standing, keep marching, keep fighting,  no matter what  came their way. And so as we think about truth,  without truth,  believers are susceptible to the schemes of the devil.  And  when pressure comes,  we might buckle under pressure if we don't know what the truth is.  After all, our  enemy is the father of lies.  Next he says to take the breastplate of righteousness.  The breastplate, right, protected the vital organs. It was critical  defense. And so this is righteousness.  And maybe what's going on here is this double meaning of righteousness. That on one hand,  what protects us the most is the righteousness of Christ.  The righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us  because of his death and resurrection  on the cross and our union with him.  But at the same time,  there's a way in which our ethical or forensic righteousness, right, the way in which we live  righteously with righteous conduct, righteous speech,  and righteous thoughts,  that they  protect  our heart from corruption. Not to earn, you know, we're not talking about earning anything, we're not talking about earning salvation or God's favor, but  that as we  live in righteous ways,  We do not allow the enemy to deceive and corrupt what we know to be right and wrong.  We do not allow ourselves to be led astray into wickedness.  The next thing we're told to put on is the shoes of readiness given by the gospel of peace.  The shoes of a soldier  were not necessarily the most comfortable, but  they were securely  fitted  and strapped,  ready to hold ground in any terrain. And so what we see here is that spiritual warfare involves gospel proclamation.  push back the darkness  through the peace that comes with the good news of Jesus.  And through this, we undermine our spiritual opponents.  Do you have  shoes of readiness  to share the gospel, fitted to your feet?  Or maybe you have the Nikes of  somebody else will do it.  Maybe you wear the crocs of  that's too far outside my comfort zone.  You probably should take off your high heels of  that person is too far gone  and recognize that this part of our union with Christ  is not optional.  We must be ready at all times to give an answer for the hope that we have  in Jesus.  The shield of faith.  You know, it was a wooden shield covered with leather, often soaked in water to extinguish the flaming arrows. These darts of the enemy were not always the most accurate. They were scattered and indiscriminate, and our faith is what protects us from these indiscriminate attacks. We must never panic and throw down our shield or throw down our guard because we need our defenses. Our faith in Christ is powerful because his faith was resolute and unshakable.  Our faith and confidence in God's loving care for us  is the effective defense we need  to be protected  from the enemy's accusations and attacks.  The helmet of salvation,  the helmet protect the soldier from unforeseen attacks from behind.  And so if we think about our mind being protected by our salvation,  the knowledge of God's salvation is what protects us.  Something I read this week  that I think is fitting.  In this vicious spiritual battle, it is possible  that believers may lose hope of victory, succumbing to pessimism and despair,  but the mind with its attitudes and convictions is protected from such traps by the knowledge that God's salvation  is certain.  Last, we are told to take up the sword of the Spirit,  which is the word of God.  Some attacks are far away and  indiscriminate, like the fiery arrows, and some are up close and personal and may require close quarters  combat.  The sword is the one offensive weapon  we are given.  But we must remember, it is not our weapon  to be used in our battles.  It is to be used to fight those who are the real enemy.  God's word is an effective weapon against the real enemy of spiritual forces and cosmic powers.  Maybe at times we misuse the word of God.  We use it to try to win arguments,  to win fights or cast judgment on others, or maybe it just puffs  ourselves up with pride, because we think we know the truth and everyone else is wayward.  When Jesus faced temptations in the desert,  From Satan, what does he do? He quotes scripture. How does he quote scripture? Well, he's been  meditating on it and thinking and reading it.  So if we want to defend against  our enemy, the real enemy, we have to be ready and prepared. m So in this spiritual battle, if we're gonna stand firm on what Christ has already won,  we need to draw strength from the right source, identify the right enemy,  equip the right armor,  and finally, engage the right strategy. uh First part of verse 18 is where we'll leave it. And he says this, praying at all times in the spirit  with all prayer and supplication.  This is the right  strategy. And I'm not gonna jump too deep into this because  Pastor Jeff will be covering aspects of this next week as he wraps up our  study of the book of Ephesians.  But essentially it's this, in all things and at all times,  as we are in this fight, we should be submitting everything to our Father in prayer.  as we recognize our eternal dependence on God and trust Him with our lives and circumstances,  the peace of Christ pervades our hearts  and minds, and we're reminded of these truths and able to encourage others.  We've been given spiritual provisions, and we can continue to ask our  Heavenly Father for that.  So as we think about what this means for us,  right?  The easiest thing is to think about those four keys and  ask yourself,  are you applying that in your life?  Are you drawing strength from the right source? Are you identifying and keeping your focus on the right  enemy? Are you equipping the right  armor? Are you engaging in the right strategy of prayer?  But a few  additional things  for us to consider. First,  we don't stumble our way into being prepared. What are you doing today to be able to stand firm tomorrow?  Are you using the best use of your time while it is called today, as scripture says?  Or even like Paul says in this passage, have you done everything to stand? Have you prepared yourself to be able to withstand the temptations that you know are coming?  Or do you buckle under the pressure because frankly, you're just too busy to find yourself to be prepared?  So we don't stumble our way into being prepared. Second,  we're in this together.  The struggle is ours.  Everything Paul says is in the plural and he puts himself there with it.  So how are you roping yourself together with other believers  so that as we are in the evil day,  you'll be able to stand firm and help others to do the same?  So if we're to be in it together, who do you need to text today?  to get lunch or coffee with sometime this week. What brother or sister in Christ needs you and you need to make yourself available to them. Who do you need to speak into your life? And of course we have excuses, right? I have work, my kids keep me busy, I'm too tired, yada, yada, yada, but we're at war. I don't know about you, but I do not want to go into battle alone. I'm thankful  for the people in my life that I get to go  into battle with that can stand firm next to me,  encourage me when I'm faltering.  We all need that.  And then the last  thing for us to consider  is that we  are already victors.  Victory is assumed because salvation is already accomplished in Jesus.  He has already done everything that needs to be done.  So do not be discouraged. Yes, there are spiritual forces at work.  Yes, they would want us to lead us to destruction, but our  salvation is accomplished.  Now, I couldn't  finish my sermon today  without  making mention of a football game that's happening later today.  I'm aware of it, yes.  You know, if you think about the players and coaches,  they were gonna... They talk the talk, right? They want to win, they plan to win, they're equipped to win. They're gonna tell the reporters, yes, we're gonna win this game, we've done everything we can, we believe we can win, right?  The players might even taunt the other team to say, hey, you don't even need to try, I got you on lockdown,  it ain't gonna happen today, I'm gonna win, we're gonna win, right? But the reality of time is that until that final whistle blows, the game's not actually over, right? They can say all they want, but...  We don't actually know what the result is going to be.  But for us,  the Super Bowl of our salvation history happened 2000 years ago on a cross on a hill called Golgotha outside of Jerusalem. The game,  it's over. It's over.  The victory belongs to God  and the trophy is us.  We are the bride and pride of Christ for what he won in his death  on the cross and in his resurrection. So  unlike  the game that's happening later today, we know  how this  ends because it has already happened. And so as we pray,  don't pray for victory, pray for boldness, pray for truth to be found on your lips,  pray that your feet are ready to rush in to speak about the gospel of  peace, pray for faith to be realized  in your life so that the lies of the evil one hold no power.  So are you getting ready? Are you awakened in your soul by the Spirit?  The word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It does not return  empty.  So get up,  get ready.  The battle  is here.  And you and I can stand firm  in what Christ has already won.  Let's pray.  Father, we recognize that  we are weak and feeble, that oftentimes we have not done everything to stand.  We have not been prepared.  We have allowed ourselves to believe the lies of the enemy.  At times we've been tempted to despair,  but Father,  we're thankful for the truth in your word.  Your truth that reminds us who we are and whose we are,  that we belong to You  and that You have given us  everything we need  to stand firm.  So Father, may we  stand firm  in You,  in Your strength,  as we seek to also  help others around us to stand firm as well.  We thank You for this, in Jesus' name.  Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  If you would like more information about our Church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindeed.com.